Math Lingo vs. Plain English

Previously, we talked about Reuben Hersh and his Definition of Mathematics.  I found another article of his, entitled Math Lingo vs. Plain English (found in The American Mathematical Monthly magazine, an excerpt of which can be found at Cut the Knot).  For much of the article, he gives examples of the difference of mathematical lingo (we'll go into this a little later) and English and how confusing it can be for students coming in to the classroom.  For example, the very simple 'a'.  In math, "Show that a number divisible by 6 is even."  In plain English, 'a' means show one example; in mathematics, it means "any number"; that is, any possible number that is divisible by 6.  There are many other words that are different, such as 'or', limits....the list goes on.  So as a math teacher, we must be constantly looking out for these differences in lingo/language.

Now, Hersh says that mathematics cannot be a language because it is not a complete dialect.  There are certain things you cannot say certain things in math, such as, "I have a headache."

I found a quote on "Cut the Knot" that I believe really addresses this:

"My own attitude, which I share with many of my colleagues, is simply that mathematics is a language. Like English, or Latin, or Chinese, there are certain concepts for which mathematics is particularly well suited: it would be as foolish to attempt to write a love poem in the language of mathematics as to prove the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra using the English language."
- R. L. E. Schwarzenberger

So there we go.

It is funny, we speak in English when we're teaching math, but we're not speaking English. As Hersh mentions, we have to be aware of this fact.

Now, just to be funny, here are some tshirts from Snorg Tees* that have to do with Math Lingo vs. Plain English. I thought they were amazingly hilarious.

*There are some semi-inappropriate tshirts on this site.  Obviously these are the best ones.